A scientific team recommends excluding and moving offshore wind farms from the protected areas in the Mediterranean due to the serious negative impacts these facilities can cause on the marine biodiversity…Continue readingStudy recommends excluding and moving offshore wind farms away from the protected areas in the Mediterranean
Author: Shane White
China will help its coal-fired power plants run at full capacity, the government has announced, raising further alarm about the fate of Beijing’s climate pledges. It was decided in the Monday…Continue readingChinese government to help run coal power plants at full capacity
The area is known for its leafy streets, stately homes, imperial palace – today a museum – and the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains. Tuesday’s storms dumped 258 millimetres (10…Continue reading‘Like a war zone’: Deaths in Brazil floods, mudslides top 100
Research prompts warnings humanity is ‘financing its own extinction’ through subsidies damaging to the climate and wildlife. From tax breaks for beef production in the Amazon to financial support for unsustainable…Continue readingWorld spends $US1.8 trillion a year on subsidies that harm environment
From the U.S. to China, in Europe, India and Japan, fossil fuels are staging a comeback, clean energy stocks are taking a hammering, and the prospects for speeding the transition to…Continue readingThe great climate backslide: How governments are regressing worldwide
A group of 60 scientists called for a moratorium on solar geoengineering last month, including technologies such as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). This involves a fleet of airplanes releasing aerosol particles—which…Continue readingTrying to cool the Earth by dimming sunlight could be worse than global warming
The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live. A…Continue readingUS west megadrought worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years
For the past 15 years the world has been using more oil than the primary monitoring agency thought. The changes aren’t small. At 2.9 billion barrels, the additional demand they’ve just found is…Continue readingThe World Has Been Using A Lot More Oil Than We Thought
25 European banks have provided $US33 billion (£24 billion) in loans and other financing to 50 companies with large oil and gas expansion plans, less than a year since pledging to…Continue readingEurope’s biggest banks provide £24 billion to oil and gas firms despite net zero pledges
The Australian government has officially listed thekoala as endangered after a decline in its numbers due to land clearing and catastrophic bushfires shrinking its habitat. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, accepted…Continue readingKoala listed as endangered after Australian governments fail to halt its decline
The ubiquitous dams around the world are built to guard against extreme flooding, meet steadily increasing water demands and provide hydroelectric power. They also alter river ecosystems — such as by…Continue readingDams alter river temperatures and endanger fish, yet 3,700 more will be built
Container ship accidents at sea should be considered the “oil spills of our time”, warned environmental organisations that found a toxic mix of metals, carcinogenic and other harmful chemicals on plastic…Continue reading‘Oil spills of our time’: experts sound alarm about plastic lost in cargo ship disasters
Plastic pollution at sea is reaching worrying levels and will continue to grow even if significant action is taken now to stop such waste from reaching the world’s oceans, according to…Continue readingPlastic pollution in oceans on track to rise for decades
Plastic has infiltrated all parts of the ocean and is now found “in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale” wildlife group WWF said. Tiny fragments of plastic have reached…Continue readingWorld must work together to tackle plastic ocean threat: WWF
Healthy-looking ochre sea stars have minimal genetic difference from those displaying symptoms of sea star wasting syndrome, say Oregon State University researchers who examined whether genetic variation was the reason some…Continue readingThe largest marine wildlife disease event in history
Just 15.5% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact, according to new research that calls for urgent conservation measures to protect what remains and restore sites that are degraded. It…Continue readingBarely 15% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact
The European Commission has been accused of undermining its climate goals after it defied critics by pushing ahead with plans to include gas and nuclear in an EU guidebook for “green”…Continue readingEU includes gas and nuclear in guidebook for ‘green’ investments
By 2080, around 70% of the world’s oceans could be suffocating from a lack of oxygen as a result of climate change, potentially impacting marine ecosystems worldwide. The new models find…Continue readingClimate change has likely begun to suffocate the world’s fisheries
Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine life, including more than 4,000 species of fish. They also provide a source of income or food to half a billion people. One way that…Continue readingLast refuges for coral reefs to disappear above 1.5˚C of global warming
After small drop in 2020, global electricity demand grew by 6% in 2021. It was the largest ever annual increase in absolute terms (over 1,500 TWh). Around half took place in China.…Continue readingIEA: Electricity CO₂ emissions reach record high and set to remain constant to 2024
The world faces a growing demand for critical minerals to meet expanding demand for clean energy and low-carbon technologies and to fuel the transition to cleaner energy futures (Bazilian 2018, Lèbre…Continue readingStudy – Critical minerals for electric vehicles: a telecoupling review
The Pope, Smith and Kohler glaciers, in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica, have experienced enhanced ocean-induced ice-shelf melt, glacier acceleration, ice thinning and grounding-line retreat in the past 30…Continue readingStudy – Rapid glacier retreat rates observed in West Antarctica
The world’s oceans are hotter than ever before, continuing their record-breaking temperature streak for the sixth straight year. For the last year, the researchers found that the upper 2,000 meters in…Continue readingAccumulated heat in the upper ocean is at record levels again
When the EU adopted its 2009 Renewable Energy Directive — a plan to reach 20% renewable energy by 2020 to help the bloc adhere to the world’s first climate treaty, the…Continue readingCould Or Should Wood Be A Climate Solution?
China’s coal production reached record levels last year as the state encouraged miners to ramp up their fossil fuel output to safeguard the country’s energy supplies through the winter gas crisis.…Continue readingChina’s coal production hit record levels in 2021
The research published in Nature Communications is the first of its kind and combines analysis of previous forest fire sites with eight drivers of fire activity including climate, fuel accumulation, ignition…Continue readingNew research links Australia’s forest fires to climate change
In addition to drastically cutting global fossil fuel emissions, society needs to develop and use technologies to remove the CO2 already in the atmosphere. Geologist Peter B. Kelemen is a research…Continue readingCarbon dioxide removal technologies take a giant step forward
New results from a long-running public opinion survey show that about 1 in 3 Americans is now “alarmed” by global warming. Is it any wonder, given the horrific onslaught of fires,…Continue reading1 in 3 Americans now ‘alarmed’ by climate change
The past six years have been the six hottest on record. More than 400 weather stations around the world beat their all-time highest temperature records in 2021. Ten countries – Oman,…Continue readingExtreme weather in 2021
As required by the UK Climate Change Act 2008, the government has today submitted the Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) to Parliament. Professor Richard Betts MBE, who led this team,…Continue readingUK government: 4°C warming by 2100: “can’t be ruled out”
In 2009, an international team of researchers identified nine planetary boundaries that demarcate the remarkably stable state Earth has remained within for 10,000 years—since the dawn of civilization. These boundaries include…Continue readingSafe planetary boundary for pollutants, including plastics, exceeded
China, under fire for approving new coal power stations as other countries try to curb greenhouse gases, has completed the first 1,000-megawatt unit of the Shanghaimiao plant, the biggest of its…Continue readingChina fires up giant coal power plant in face of calls for cuts
Deforestation last year rose to the highest level since 2015 in Brazil’s Cerrado, prompting scientists on Monday to raise alarm over the state of the world’s most species-rich savanna and a…Continue readingBrazil: deforestation jumps in world’s largest savanna as scientists raise alarm
Queensland landholders are clearing the equivalent of about 1,000 Melbourne Cricket Grounds a day, including endangered ecological regions, according to state government data that raises new doubts about the accuracy of…Continue reading‘Carbon bomb’: Queensland, Australia, reveals big jump in land clearing
After falling in 2019 and 2020, global power generation from coal is expected to jump by 9% in 2021 to an all-time high. Depending on weather patterns and economic growth, overall…Continue readingCoal power’s sharp rebound is taking it to a new record in 2021, threatening net zero goals
A few days before Christmas, Super-typhoon Rai – known locally as Odette – ravaged the Philippines. Lost lives continue to climb two weeks on. Vast numbers of buildings were destroyed –…Continue readingFilipinos count cost of climate crisis as typhoons get ever more destructive
The accelerating melting of the Himalayan glaciers threatens the water supply of millions of people in Asia, new research warns. Himalayan glaciers have lost ice ten times more quickly over the…Continue readingHimalayan glaciers melting at ‘exceptional rate’
Coal combustion for power generation made up 30% of global CO2 emissions in 2018. To achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement to keep global average temperatures below 2°C, power generation…Continue readingStudy – The Expanding Coal Power Fleet in Southeast Asia
The last time carbon dioxide levels were where they are today, at more than 415 parts per million, was 4 million years ago, and the result of the associated warming due…Continue readingScientist says time is running out for West Antarctic ice sheet
Land-clearing for crops in the Murray-Darling basin, the main winter breeding ground for the moths, Severe drought in the breeding grounds, Increased use of pesticides such as neonicotinoids in Australia (some…Continue reading‘A 99.5% decline’: what caused Australia’s bogong moth catastrophe?
While driving an electric car has fewer environmental impacts than gasoline-powered cars, the production of the parts necessary for these green technologies can have dire effects on human well-being. After studying…Continue readingCobalt’s human cost: Social consequences of green energy must be assessed in addition to environmental impacts
Concurrent heatwaves the size of Mongolia or Iran were 7x more frequent in 2010s than 1980s. And their intensity rose 17%, and geographic extent increased 46%.Continue readingConcurrent heatwaves seven times more frequent than 1980s
Scientists estimate that 16.9 million vertebrates were killed by fires in the Pantanal wetlands, Brazil, between Jan & Nov 2020. Sampling likely excluded species incl. jaguars, pumas & tapirs, & doesn’t…Continue readingAlmost 17 million vertebrates killed in the 2020 wildfires in Brazil
The world likely will generate more electricity from the dirtiest source this year than ever before, indicating just how far the energy transition still needs to run in the fight against…Continue readingThe world is burning the most coal ever to keep the lights on
The Arctic continues to warm more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Summer 2021 saw the second-lowest amount of older, multi-year ice since 1985, and the post-winter…Continue readingHumanity continues to degrade the Arctic
Scientists have discovered a series of worrying weaknesses in the ice shelf holding back one of Antarctica’s most dangerous glaciers, suggesting that this important buttress against sea level rise could shatter…Continue readingButressing of Thwaites glacier in Antarctica expected to fail within 10 years
Almost two-thirds of the hundreds of mollusc species that live in the deep sea are at risk of extinction, according to a new study that rings another alarm bell over the…Continue readingDeep-sea mining may push hundreds of species to extinction
Among the species listed is the bogong moth. Scientists have detected steady declines in numbers of bogong moths since the 1980s. But in 2017 and 2018 that crashed to numbers so…Continue reading124 Australian species added to endangered species list
A record manatee die-off in Florida this year has become so dire that federal officials are taking a once unthinkable step — feeding the wild marine mammals to help them survive…Continue reading15% of Florida’s manatee population has died this year due to human activity
Scientists and monitoring groups are growing increasingly alarmed at the slew of vague net-zero pledges that appear to privilege offsets and future technological breakthroughs over short-term emissions cuts. “They’re not fit…Continue readingAs climate ‘net-zero’ plans grow, so do concerns from scientists
While southern Australia experienced a wet winter and a soggy spring, northern Australia has seen the opposite. Extreme fire weather in October and November led to bushfires across 120,000 square kilometers…Continue readingWe are professional fire watchers, and we’re astounded by the scale of fires in remote Australia right now
The warming of the planet is taking a deadly toll on seabirds that are suffering population declines from starvation, inability to reproduce, heat waves and extreme weather. One estimate by researchers…Continue readingHuman greenhouse gas emissions kill seabirds
The drought and heatwaves that seared eastern Australia in the lead-up to the 2019-20 black summer bushfires killed as much as 60% of the trees in some areas that escaped the…Continue readingDrought and heatwaves in Australia cause widespread tree death
Climate scientists say the floods in 2019 and 2020 were driven in part by global warming-linked changes in a weather pattern called the Indian Ocean Dipole. In East Africa, this led to extreme…Continue readingRecord floods linked to climate change have left the people of South Sudan in crisis
The red list of Britain’s most endangered birds has increased to 70 species. Birds are placed on the red list either because their populations have severely declined in Britain, or because…Continue readingBritain wildlife is in freefall with 70 of 245 bird species now seriously at risk
216 out of 1,299 species are threatened – up from 195 in 2011 – with the climate crisis pushing more birds on to the list or increasing the threat status of those in…Continue readingOne in six Australian birds are now threatened
The Black Summer forest fires of 2019–2020 in Australia burned more than 24 million hectares (59 million acres), directly causing 33 deaths and almost 450 more from smoke inhalation. Nearly 3 billion animals…Continue readingForest fires in Australia are worsening
Climate change and warming waters are pushing black-browed albatross break-up rates higher. Typically after choosing a partner, only 1-3% would separate in search of greener romantic pastures. But in the years…Continue readingHuman emissions causing increasing rates of albatross break-ups
After the natural warming that followed the last Ice Age, there were repeated periods when masses of icebergs broke off from Antarctica into the Southern Ocean. A new data-model study led…Continue readingAntarctic ice sheet destabilized within a decade
The 13,235 square kilometers (5,110 square miles) of forest lost from August 2020 to July 2021 was the largest swath since 14,286 square kilometers were cleared in 2005-06. The rate of…Continue readingBrazil Amazon deforestation up 22% in a year; a 15 year record
Sequoias are the largest trees by volume and are native in only about 70 groves scattered along the western side of the Sierra Nevada range. They were once considered nearly fire-proof.…Continue readingUS wildfires have killed nearly 20% of world’s giant sequoias in 2 years
Three of British Columbia’s worst wildfire years have taken place in the last four years, and the widespread floods and mudslides last week took place after roughly a month’s worth of…Continue readingFloods and wildfires are now normal life in small-town Canada
From a study published in 2019: Biodiversity of insects is threatened worldwide. Our work reveals dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the extinction of 40% of the world’s insect…Continue readingOver 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction
Las Tablas de Daimiel is a unique wetland in the vast, almost treeless plains of Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain, but the park has had the life sucked out of it…Continue readingThe true cost of growing food in Spain’s arid south
One of every six birds – a net loss of 600 million breeding birds in total – have disappeared over less than four decades. The study by scientists from the RSPB,…Continue readingHumans kill off 1 in 6 birds in the EU and UK
The US and Canada have lost more than one in four birds – a total of three billion – between 1970 and 2019, culminating in what scientists who published a new…Continue readingHumans kill off 1 in 4 birds in the US and Canada
TotalEnergies & China’s CNOOC will drill more than 431 wells in Uganda and pump the crude in a pipeline heated to 50˚C 1,450km (900 miles) to a port in Tanzania. The…Continue readingThe East African Pipeline
If global warming is kept to 1.5˚C, the mix of corals on the Barrier Reef will change but it could still thrive, said the study’s lead author Professor Terry Hughes, of…Continue readingAustralia’s Great Barrier Reef will survive if warming kept to 1.5˚C
The World Meteorological Organization reported Monday that greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record high last year and increased at a faster rate than the annual average for the last decade…Continue readingUN: Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record in 2020
The severity of possible future temperature extremes poses serious challenges for preparedness for future climatic change. The modelled Victoria and NSW extremes indicate the possibility that sites within major Australian cities,…Continue readingAustralia’s Unprecedented Future Temperature Extremes Under Paris Limits to Warming
Germany’s Garzweiler coal mine has already swallowed more than a dozen villages. Centuries-old churches and family homes have been razed and the land they were built on torn away. Farmland has…Continue readingGermany portrays itself as a climate leader. But it’s still razing villages for coal mines.
Where civilization emerged between the Tigris and Euphrates, climate change is poisoning the land and emptying the villages.Continue readingAcross Iraq’s south, there is a sense of an ending
“We need drastic, radical emissions reductions, and on top of that we need some CDR,” said Glen Peters, research director at the Centre for International Climate Research. There are basically two…Continue readingClimate: Removing CO₂ from the air no longer optional
Global warming has pushed what would’ve been a moderate drought in southwestern North America into megadrought territory. 2000–2018 was the driest 19 year period since the late 1500s. Climate model trends…Continue readingLarge contribution from anthropogenic warming to an emerging North American megadrought
Earth now faces a global extinction crisis never witnessed by humankind. Scientists predict that more than 1 million species are on track for extinction in the coming decades. Every taxon is…Continue readingThe Extinction Crisis
Total Energies is leaving it to others to meet the carbon reduction goals in the Paris agreement, after the Paris-based colossal fossil predicted the world will hit peak oil demand around…Continue readingColossal Fossil Total Projects Peak Oil by 2030, Still ‘Leaves it to Others’ to Meet Paris Targets
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/J4UIL5EZ3VNEJHP4YFCP53UFG4.jpg "Norway to keep searching for oil and gas")
A minority coalition of the Labour Party and the rural Centre Party will take power after defeating the Conservative-led government in last month’s election. “The Norwegian petroleum industry will be developed,…Continue readingNorway to keep searching for oil and gas
Hopes for a cleaner future have been fired by pledges from top coal consumer China and other countries to go carbon neutral, but much of the region is making a painfully…Continue reading‘Running out of time’: Asia struggles to kick coal addiction
The death toll from days of flooding and landslides in India and Nepal crossed 100 on Wednesday, including several families swept away or crushed in their homes by avalanches of mud…Continue readingFloods, landslides kill 116 in India and Nepal
After Venice suffered the second-worst flood in its history in November 2019, it was inundated with four more exceptional tides within six weeks, shocking Venetians and triggering fears about the worsening…Continue readingFlooding in Venice worsens off-season amid climate change
In the largest city of Nicaragua’s sugar cane-growing region, agricultural workers – who have scant labour protection and usually come from poor families – see little option but to risk their…Continue readingGlobal heating is having a deadly impact on Nicaragua’s sugar cane workers, who toil in temperatures of up to 45˚C
Nearly 21,000 monitored populations of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians, encompassing almost 4,400 species around the world, have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to the World…Continue readingAnimal populations worldwide have declined nearly 70% in just 50 years
Across the region, the price of historic dryness is being measured in lost crops, a slowdown in mining, surging transportation costs and shortages of energy in a region heavily dependent on…Continue readingIn South America, the climate future has arrived.
Nature is being destroyed at a rate never before seen in human history, that rate is accelerating and almost all of the destruction is caused by humans. Australia is ranked third in the…Continue readingBiodiversity loss caused by Australian society
Today’s emission reduction pledges cover less than 20% of the gap that needs to be closed by 2030 to keep a 1.5 °C path within reach. For all the advances being…Continue readingA new global energy economy is emerging, but the transformation still has a long way to go
An international team of researchers has created a model that estimates the effects on the world’s oceans over the past century by fish and their excrement. The model showed that the…Continue readingModel suggests fish fecal carbon sequestering in the ocean has declined by half over the past century
Protecting trees is key to meeting ambitious climate goals, with tropical rainforest loss accounting for about eight percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions, according to monitoring platform Global Forest Watch. Indonesia,…Continue readingUN deforestation prevention scheme collapses
Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi, recorded rainfall of 185mm, about seven times the pre-2010 average for October. Shanxi is a land-locked province SW of Beijing. About 1.75 million people have been…Continue readingFloods in China